With over 47 million Americans living without health coverage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act (sometimes referred to as "Obamacare") moving forward, changes in the way health care is financed and delivered will be increasingly on the minds of many residents.

The United States already spends 17 per cent of GDP on healthcare, more than any other country in the world. Concerns include how the increased cost of covering millions of additional people will be covered, why millions will be still be left without medical coverage, whether reforms will limit patient choices of providers and therapeutic options, and the sheer complexity of the entire medical delivery system.

One option that has been effectively left out of the entire mainstream debate on national healthcare reform is single payer - in essence Medicare for everybody - adopted by most industrialized countries, including Canada. By greatly reducing complexity and paperwork, and virtually eliminating the compartmentalization of the present market-based system, single-payer healthcare is estimated to reduce overall costs by up to 30 per cent.

Tri-City residents will have an opportunity to find out how the health care systems in Canada and the United States evolved to be so completely different, when at one point they were essentially the same. Most people under the age of 50, in both countries, are not aware of the intensity of the political struggle that led to the universal medical care system in Canada. Nor are they aware of the public relations campaigns, still active today, that have been prevalent in the United States since the early 1900s to dissuade the public from even thinking about national health care.

Produced by Canadian-American couple Laurie Simons and Terry Sterrenberg, "The Healthcare Movie" reveals the personal and emotional impact on Canadians who now have access to universal health care because of the heroism of people who took a stand nearly 50 years ago. It also reveals the continuing struggle in the United States for the right to quality health care for all people.

Screening of "The Healthcare Movie" will be sponsored by Tri-City Perspectives, Niles Discovery Church, and the San Jose Peace and Justice Center. It will be followed by a lively discussion led by Lynn Huidekoper and Joan Simon of Health Care for All (HCA). This will also be an opportunity to find out how we can have affordable universal single-payer health care in California.